Loving the Chase (Heart of the Storm #1)

by Sharla Lovelace

“I’ll be fine,” she said, suddenly needing to be anywhere but there.

  “It’s dark. I’ll take you on the bike,” he said.

  Oh, hell, no. A crotch rocket between her legs as she straddled his ass and held on to him? Just kill her now.

  “Not necessary,” she said, laughing, hoping she was pulling off casual. “I can walk in a little rain, Zach. I won’t melt.”

  “I’ll go with you,” he said, grabbing his keys.

  “Seriously?”

  He stopped and gave her a look. “Grace with my mother again. You stole the last one, I’m claiming this one. I’m not letting you walk home in the dark in the rain.”

  Maddi laughed, relieved and awed at the same time that he had that ability to make her laugh amidst nerves. “Fine. Do you have an umbrella?”

  He tilted his head. “I drive a motorcycle.”

  “Good point,” she said, holding up a finger. “So here we go.”

  The rain had worsened considerably in the last few minutes, turning the gravel of his driveway ahead to mud and even the grassy areas to swampy messes. And that’s just what she could see from the porch light.

  “Sure about that here we go part?” he said as they stood on the porch surveying their options. He was right behind her, and his voice next to her ear was almost too much.

  Logic said stay in and ride it out. No, no riding. Bad choice of thoughts. Wait it out. But waiting it out alone with Zach was a recipe for a girly-part coup. They would win. And her heart and mind might not survive the battle.

  “Let’s go,” she said, walking out into it.

  Instantly, she was soaked to the skin, her thin T-shirt and cutoff sweatpants stuck to her like paint. Running wasn’t an option in the flip-flops, so she set up a pace, which failed miserably as her feet slipped in the plastic. Nearly turning an ankle when her shoe stuck in the mud, Zach caught her around the waist.

  “Shit!” she said, the rain swallowing her word.

  “Take them off,” he said, gesturing with a hand.

  Maddi looked up at him; he looked impossibly delicious with water dripping off his hair. Even in the low light, she could see his gray T-shirt was molded to his body and outlined every muscle. Oh, holy hell, this was going downhill fast.

  “What?” she said.

  “Take them off and climb on,” he said, pointing at his back.

  He had to be joking. She started giggling like a fool. “No.”

  He grinned. “Come on, I’ll carry you. You can’t walk through this like that.”

  She turned down the crotch rocket, and now it had come to this? Wet and wrapped around his back. Her mouth couldn’t even form the words to tell him how crazy that was.

  She took off her shoes and just started picking her way gingerly across the muddy gravel to get to the grass on the sides. Hell, no. Let him follow her, she wasn’t going to—

  Maddi’s feet left the ground as arms came around her back and the backs of her legs.

  “Fuck!” she exclaimed.

  “No, I’m just carrying you right now,” Zach said, grinning down at her as her arm automatically went around his neck. He bounced her in his arms to adjust and moved to the grass to start walking. “Easier over here.”

  Stunned into silence as her heart took off at double time, her mouth moved. “Zach—Zach, put—” Oh, God, it felt too good to be in his arms like that. Feeling the heat through the wet fabric of his shirt. Better would be if she were actually facing him. Shit. “Put me down, Zach,” she said, laughter catching in her throat as she blinked against the rain. “This is crazy.”

  “Yeah, well, normal is overrated,” he said on a smirk.

  She slapped a hand over her face. “I’ll never live this down.”

  “You’re assuming we’ll ever get there,” he said, chuckling, ducking his head against the rain that was now blowing sideways. “We haven’t even left my yard yet.”

  “Put me do—” Maddi began, but then the world as she knew it moved as Zach slipped in some mud. “Oh!”

  Arms flailed as they went down. He socked her in the boob and she smacked him in the mouth just before they landed in a wet squishy thunk.

  “Gah!” she exclaimed, feeling an entire puddle soak through her clothes. But then a giggle that wouldn’t be contained rolled upward and outward as she caught sight of Zach coming up from a muddy rut in the grass with a clump of mud in his hair and down one side of his face.

  “Shit, are you okay?” he asked, concern on his face making it even more comical as he crawled to a higher grassy spot.

  Maddi’s laughter took over as she crawled next to him and tried to speak. “You should—see—oh, my God.”

  “You have mud all over your ass,” he said, raising his voice against the increasing volume of the wind and the rumble of the thunder.

  “You have it all over your face,” she giggled.

  “That was graceful, wasn’t it?” he said, attempting to pull the sod out of his hair.

  “Epic.”

  It was pelting them—she had to slick her hair back to even see—but she reached over and knocked off the sod where it stuck to his temple, smearing some down across his chin as she did.

  “Oh, you’re not right,” he said.

  He grabbed a handful from the clump she’d just pulled off him, and smeared it across her cheek, making her laugh even more. It was like the old days when they were them, and Maddi had a surge of happiness she hadn’t felt in a long time. Like she’d found something she’d lost.

  “Aren’t we a mess now?” she said, but he was staring at her again, that look burning into her skin. “What?” she breathed.

  He shook his head slightly, a small smile tugging at one side of his lips. “You. Laughing in the rain. It—” He chuckled silently. “It doesn’t get better than that.”

  Softly, she picked a piece of grass from his cheek, feeling a burn in her eyes and throat that had nothing to do with the rain.

  “I’ve missed you,” she said, unsure if it was even out loud.

  “I’ve missed this,” he said.

  Before her thoughts could tell her no, before her heart could wave her off—Maddi’s body moved on its own. She couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t stop. She closed the inches between them and found his mouth.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Maddi kissed him. Out in the middle of a thunderstorm, soaked to the skin, she leaned in and planted a kiss on him that flipped back time and stopped it simultaneously. Suddenly Zach didn’t care about the rain or the mud in his hair or the puddle seeping through his jeans. All he cared about was keeping Maddi Hayes’s mouth on his.

  Cradling her head in his hands, he pulled her in, searching her mouth, tasting her, taking all he could before she changed her mind. Before she remembered for both of them why they couldn’t do this.

  His tongue slid over hers as he dove deeper, needing more, needing her. Then she gave a little moan in his mouth, making him nearly blind with need. God help him, this was actually happening. This was Maddi, losing herself in his kiss, her hands going into his wet hair, pulling him impossibly closer. Zach obliged, pulling her body to him until she was straddling him, her arms wound around his head in desperate desire. His hands pressing her tightly against him as he kissed her as deeply and thoroughly as he could. Making love to her mouth, feeling—fuck—feeling too damn much as things he couldn’t afford to feel came rushing to the surface. A burn hit him in the gut and the chest and the eyes at the same time, and he forced himself to pull back, kissing her face, trying to breathe. Tasting salt.

  He opened his eyes to look into hers. They hadn’t made it far, and the light from the porch still made it possible to see the rivulets of water running down her face. But tears? Hell they might have been his. She gripped his face and pressed her forehead to his, pulling every ounce of gut-wrenching control from him
. Someone had to think. Someone that wasn’t him.

  “Maddi,” he breathed as lightning flashed overhead and thunder cracked over them.

  “I know,” she whispered against his lips.

  “You—you have to stop us,” Zach said against hers, his hands on her ass, pulling her against him and then sliding up her back. “God help me, I don’t think I can.”

  She moved her hips against him as his hands roamed, and took a shaky breath as her fingers tangled in his hair. “I can’t, Zach,” she said. “I know I should, but I—” Her lips pressed against his face, raining kisses along his eyes, his temple, breaking his self-control and sending him into the place just under her ear that he miraculously remembered her liking. “I can’t stop touching you,” she breathed. “Oh, God.”

  Her hands slid to his shoulders, moving slowly, as if she was memorizing the way he felt under her fingers. As he licked the rain from her skin, all the way down her throat, he felt her breathing quicken and her hands start to tremble. She still liked that. God, he was screwed. There was no stopping once he got to where he was going next. No damn way. And his last remaining thoughts of doing the right thing quickly blew away with the wind as she leaned back just enough for his lips to find the tops of her breasts. The little flap lay open for him and he couldn’t stop himself. His hands came up to cup her breasts and his mouth landed against the exposed cleavage inside. His sweet spot.

  He growled against her skin, unbuttoning the next button so that he could passionately kiss her left breast and unhook the front latch of her bra. He needed skin. God, he needed skin, as she clutched his head to her chest and her hips kept driving him mad with their slow pulse against him. He peeled fabric away one button at a time and took a nipple into his mouth.

  “Oh, God, Zach,” she cried, gasping in several breaths as he sucked on one and rolled the other between his fingers. Her thighs clenched around him, pressing her harder against where he was already about to bust his damn zipper. His phone buzzed in his pocket, but he didn’t care. Nothing was more important than what was under his hands. When she yanked his shirt over his head, he knew he was done for.

  “Hold on,” he said wrapping an arm around her and turning them over so that she was under him, lying on the grass. She gasped and he stopped, brushing wet hair from her face. “Is it cold?”

  Maddi shook her head, reaching for him. Her eyes burned into him with a look he hadn’t seen in years. Something beyond lust. Beyond need. “I don’t care,” she said, pulling his body to hers, skin to skin, mouth to mouth. The nail around his neck settled into the hollow of her throat.

  Fuck, she was driving him mad, and his free hand cupped her ass as he pushed himself hard between her legs, making love to her mouth on the same rhythm.

  It was insane. It was Maddi. They couldn’t do this. They couldn’t—but God, he needed her. He needed his Maddi like he had never needed anyone in his life.

  Maddi opened her eyes, watching the lightning flash over them, the rain blow past like they were nothing. Like she could scream into the wind and the rain would just carry it off into nothing. That was about to happen.

  It didn’t matter that none of it was smart or right or anything either of them should do, it was happening. It was happening since the second she’d kissed him. Since the moment she’d slid off that tailgate and followed him to his house. Since she’d danced in his arms last night.

  Since the day they’d sat across the table from each other at Infinity.

  This was happening.

  His mouth on hers was intoxicating, and she couldn’t get enough of it. Couldn’t get enough of the feel of his body under her hands. Of his mouth on her skin. Of his eyes on her when he’d stop and take her in. And now he was—oh, God, she felt the rain on her face again as he moved down her body, kissing his way down. Were they really doing this in his front ya—

  “Oh, Jesus, Zach,” she breathed as his mouth followed his hands, peeling her wet sweatpants and panties down her legs. He paused where she needed him to, just enough to tease her into a shaking mess, then sat up and tossed the wet clothes aside, raking back his wet hair so he could see her.

  She couldn’t breathe as she watched him drag his gaze up her body to finally stop at her eyes. “Baby,” he croaked.

  Tears sprung to her eyes at the intimacy of the word. It was a question, she knew it was a question. She knew it should be a real and serious question. But there wasn’t one. Not in her mind. She didn’t even want the space that was currently between them. Everything that was real out in that world they’d have to face afterward, she would face. All the reasons ringing at the back of her mind for why she shouldn’t do this would still be there later. But right at that moment in the rain and the wind and the wet grass under her, all she wanted was Zach. She wanted him back in her arms and everything else that meant.

  She raised up and pulled his face back to her, kissing him with all she had, letting her hands roam his body the way his were on hers. Letting him know just how clear her answer was. She unfastened his jeans, making him groan as she released him and held him in her hands.

  “Zach,” she said against his neck, rain pelting the side of her face. His fingers found her, making her whole body spasm. “Please,” she begged. God, when was the last time she’d begged a man to take her. To touch her. It was over the top.

  His whole face changed at the request. Even in the near darkness and the blowing rain, she saw it. The look that kept clawing at her heart. And as his lips landed on hers again, he entered her. Growling her name into her mouth.

  The sounds she heard come from her own throat weren’t discernable words, just babbled ecstasy as she wrapped her legs around Zach and took all that he had. She held his face as he moved inside her. As they moved together like the dance, perfectly synced, mouths finding each other to capture gasps between kisses. Slow then fast. Easy then rough. Filling her up impossibly as he lifted her legs higher. Never taking his eyes from hers.

  It was simple. It was basic. It was primal, and it was the hottest, sexiest thing she’d ever experienced, even with Zach. The way he held eye contact with her as he drove into her body, whispering her name, driving them higher and higher, filled her eyes with a burn she couldn’t contain as lightning flashed overhead and she arched into a rocket launch of an orgasm.

  “Zach!” she screamed into the wind, over and over, as the hot tears spilled over her cheeks, her nails dug into his skin, and her body convulsed around him.

  “Fuck, Maddi,” he groaned. “God, baby, you—God!” he yelled through his teeth, his whole body tensing as he let out a roar that the crash of thunder swallowed whole. Pounding harder, yelling with each thrust until there was nothing left of him.

  Maddi wrapped her whole self around him, clinging to his body as he clung to her, both of them shaking. The world was ripping past them, it might even be ripping apart for all she knew. She didn’t want to let go to find out. She didn’t want to let go at all.

  Zach didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to pull away and look at her. Didn’t want to talk. He didn’t want anything to mess with the moment they’d just had. He wanted to stay right there, pretzeled and intertwined with this woman in the middle of a thunderstorm in his front yard forever. At the risk of sounding like some horrible movie-cliché line, what they’d just done was literally the best moment of his entire life.

  And now reality was about to come crashing down. Problem was, a whole different reality had crashed in on him. One he was going to pay huge for.

  Somebody had to take the first step, so he lifted his head and met her eyes, a little afraid of what he might see.

  “Hey there,” she said.

  “Hey,” he said.

  Zach’s hands still framed her head, and he caressed her forehead with his thumbs, trying to read her eyes. Trying to see regret or horror or even an oh, shit in there somewhere. He couldn’t tell, but
then he saw her chin quiver and her quick bite of her lip to cover it.

  Damn shit hell.

  “Maddi,” he said, pressing his lips between her eyes. “Don’t cry, please. Shit, I’m sorry—”

  “No,” she said, squeezing her eyes tight. Zach felt the hot tears roll onto his hands. “No, it’s not like that,” she said. “Don’t be sorry.” He saw fierceness in her eyes when she opened them. “Don’t you dare be sorry.”

  He shook his head minutely. “I’m not. I was gonna say I’m sorry if this upset you. If it—messed things up.” He paused. “I don’t regret one second. It doesn’t get better than this.”

  He could see her eyes fill and when she blinked, the hot liquid spilled over his fingers again. “That’s what you said about me laughing in the rain,” she said, attempting a chuckle.

  “Well, having sex with you in the rain has trumped that now,” he said.

  She bit back a laugh, and Zach felt the air around them lighten. The downpour lightened at the same time, lessening to a softer shower, as if the momentum and power of the last half hour was over. Was over. Something about that made his gut hurt.

  He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers.

  “I don’t want to—”

  “I don’t, either,” she finished.

  “Maybe someone will come looking in a day or so,” Zach said. “Throw food.”

  Maddi giggled. “There’s a visual.”

  Zach leaned back and brushed a blade of grass from her cheek, sighing. He wanted to hold this in his mind for eternity. She lifted her head to kiss him. Softly. Bringing him back down with her. It was nice and it was sexy-sweet, and it was—yeah, that kick to the chest was what he thought it was. It was his damn heart getting involved.

  Keep your head in the game, boy.

  Yeah, he was doing a bang-up job of that.

  “What’s the nail about?” she whispered as it brushed against her cheek. She pulled it between her teeth playfully, and yet it yanked on every heartstring he had.